A fundamental study on the fluorescence-quenching effect of nitro groups in tetraphenylethene AIE dyes with electron-withdrawing groups

A nitro group is a common fluorescence quencher,but its quenching efficiency can be easily affected by the surrounding environment.To date,there has been no systematic study on the effects of electronwithdrawing groups on the quenching efficiency of nitro groups.Herein,by virtue of experimental validation and theoretical calculations,we found that strong electron-withdrawing groups,such as pyridinium and dicyanovinyl groups,are detrimental to the quenching effect of nitro groups.Decreasing the electron-withdrawing ability could restore the nitro group’s quenching effect.